Ryan and Jedinak are nailed on. The rest, nope.

Are you seriously saying Davidson and Oar aren't first 11 certainties?

Oar is. But, to be perfectly honest, Davidson doesn't inspire all that much confidence for me, even though he's doing well in the Eredivisie. This might, partly, be because we absolutely dominated him when he played for Melbourne Grammar. It's also because whenever I've seen him play for Australia he has looked like a bit of a liability.

But still, at the moment, we've got nobody better (as Brad Smith betrayed us), so we might as well persevere with him.

Edited by quickflick: 23/4/2014 11:28:15 PM

I tend to think tournaments are different kettle of fish to one off internationals. A player may struggle to adapt in a one off but play beautifully at club level. When the world cup comes round and there are 7 games in a row including friendlies club players tend to shine

grazorblade

excellent point

Club players? As opposed to what kind of players?

Davidson is playing ok football for Heracles but he's looked awful for Australia. If Oar's season had been any more average he'd have completely faded into the background at Utrecht.

I don’t mind Americans but I do find some of them a bit disconnected from the rest of the world. Spent a couple of weeks there in 2012, spent some time with an educated local family (business manager and architect) who had never heard of the Harbour Bridge or Opera House. Every time we spoke about the wonders of Australia a glazed looks came across their eyes, they just had no interest at all in what existed or what happened outside of their own borders. They did want to see Egypt though. Egypt!

He needs some experience, Nickk.

Ange P has a the right idea.

I'm expecting 3 losses at the WC, unless Holland struggle with the heat.

It will be better to have lost three games at the WC with a younger team, rather than losing three with a more experienced team, who will be even older at the Asian Cup.

There is no heat in June in Porto Alegre.

good point

There appears to be a pretty decent number of midfielders who are young and ready to take over from the older ones:
Luongo, Holland, Antonis, Sarota and Brattan. They can all play #6 or #8 and should be given a chance, at least post-WC.

'cept the heat our boys will provide. :cool:

Edited by u4486662: 30/4/2014 06:16:22 AM